Multimedia, such as broadcast television and video on demand, typically include some form of promotional messages, such as commercial messages or advertisements. For the benefit of viewers, production and distribution costs of multimedia are offset by advertising revenues gained through sale of promotional spots. Advertisers may purchase promotional spots for airing promotional messages during a particular program, time and/or market, with an expectation that viewers will be exposed to their products and services by way of their messages.
Multimedia recorders, such as digital video recorders (DVR) and video cassette recorders (VCR), generally record multimedia without distinguishing differences between programmed content, such as movies or broadcast television shows, versus promotional spots positioned within the programmed content. A viewer may select from an electronic program guide one or more programs for recording. Alternatively, a viewer may select one or more of a start time, an end time, duration, and channel for recording. Multimedia program content airing in association with the viewer-selected programs or at the viewer-selected channels and times may be subsequently recorded. The recorded multimedia programs generally include any promotional content, such as original advertisements that aired during promotional spots of the recorded program. Consequently, the original advertisements will be viewable during playback of the pre-recorded multimedia content.